


Blending

by ChestnutBrumby



Series: Sweet Dreams - Scarlet Vision ficlets [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Carnival, F/M, Fluff, Other, Romance, These two are still killing me, Vision likes dodgems, Wanda doesn't like upside-down rides, night out, scarlet vision - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 12:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7439962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChestnutBrumby/pseuds/ChestnutBrumby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Wanda and Vision learn to always, always check what the ride does before getting on.</p>
<p>Carnival bonding time fic set between Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blending

 Vision heard the sound of the car Wanda had borrowed to go grocery shopping, set aside the book he'd been reading and headed out to meet her. "Hey Vis." She called through the open window.   
  
She'd been more lighthearted of late, her grief a touch lessened, though he knew she thought of her twin often. The difference was noticeable to him, though.   
  
"Welcome home, Wanda." Vision replied, waiting until she was out of the car and closing her door for her. She smiled at his chivalry, feeling a touch of warmth at the thought of having a home to return to. Although the Avengers facility also trained and provided a workplace for a variety of different people, from soldiers to scientists, in the past few weeks since moving in, both Wanda and Vision had come to feel at home.   
  
It was a novel feeling for Wanda. She only wished Pietro was able to add to the general chaos that was life as an Avenger.  
  
"Do you require assistance with your bags?" Vision brought her back to the present with his question.   
  
"That would be great. I've got a few though, I warn you, I got a long list of American food Sam said I had to try, and I also wound up picking up bits and pieces for the rest of the team."      
  
Vision wasn't deterred when a dozen environmental bags were revealed. Wanda grabbed one in each hand and headed towards the door, while Vision proceeded to loop the remainder over his arms and follow.   
  
Wanda laughed when she set her bags down on the kitchen island and found Vision standing behind her with the rest like a patient packhorse. "Thanks, Vis." She reached to unhook the straps from his arms, and Vision noted with great interest that when her fingers brushed his skin he felt an odd tingling sensation radiating up form the point of contact.   
  
He stayed to help Wanda unpack, because watching the way she put groceries away amused him. She never used her powers, telling him once she drew the line at floating boxes of cereal levitating across the kitchen, but instead her habit was to remove everything from the bags, laid it out on the kitchen island, and put things away in sections. The part he enjoyed was the way she gathered up a whole armload, holding boxes and packets pinned against her body with one arm, then put things away one-handed. When she did this, she often juggled the item at hand, giving a tiny throw to an upside-down item and catching it deftly, storing it label to the front. Though Wanda wasn't actually known for her accuracy or hand-eye co-ordination Vision noticed she never dropped a single bag or tin. Vision helped, strategically picking up items to put away that allowed him to watch Wanda from the corner of his eye.   
  
"What's made you so smiley today?" Wanda asked when they'd neared the end of the stack of food. Vision blinked once in surprise - he hadn't realized he'd been smiling, but he didn't think twice about answering honestly. "You, actually. I enjoy the way you put groceries away, you always follow the same system."   
  
Used to Vision's slight oddness, Wanda only chuckled at this. "Sometimes I don't mind a little order to life." She admitted, flipping a bag of pasta the right way up and putting it in the pantry. Finishing off with the last few items she held, she reached into the last bag and held out a book with a little red celephame bow stuck to the cover.   
  
"Here. I felt bad buying chocolates, chips and protein power for everybody else on the team, and nothing for you since you don't eat. So I got you the latest James Patterson, he's written lots more books if you like this one."   
  
Vision accepted the present and touched the tiny bow, listening to it crinkle. He realized he was smiling again, and a warm glow of gratitude and acceptance steadily flared within him. Instead of voicing his feelings, as he sometimes did with Wanda, he extended his thoughts to her mind and let her feel his emotions for herself. She smiled and touched him on the wrist as she passed, putting away the environmental bags in the bottom drawer. "You're welcome."   
  
"I do think I'll enjoy this more than a protein powder or a Mars Bar." Vision admitted, making Wanda laugh.     
  
Wanda glanced down at the folded paper she'd picked up for Steve. (She teased him that nobody actually brought newspapers anymore and to look up the articles online like a normal person. He'd shot back that he preferred the feel of the paper in his hand and that he liked the editorials, and who was it that refused to switch to an e-reader because she preferred having a physical book anyway?)   
  
"Wow, there's a carnival in town. Not far away from here, either. Rides, sideshows, fireworks display." Wanda read, then looked up. "I haven't been to a carnival since I was a small child." A plan was already forming, and she nudged it slyly towards Vision's mind.   
  
Vision gazed back at her with an overly innocent expression. "I've never been to a carnival."  
  
She leaned towards his shoulder and whispered conspiratorially. "I'll meet you outside your room, five this evening."

 

* * *

  
  
  
She beamed when she saw him, committed to their plan to sneak out, but her expression altered into one of bemusement when she took in the hooked jacket Vision was wearing - with the hood up. She could barely see his face. It would have been funny if she hadn't been able to sense his feelings.  
  
"I thought it would be less... conspicuous." Vision told her somewhat sheepishly, and Wanda let out a small sigh. Reaching up, she grasped the edges of the hood and drew it down, revealing the elegant silver-and-maroon lines of his face. "Vis. There's a reason I wanted to go out with you, and not one of the others. But I want to go with _you_ , not a disguise of you."     
   
For a moment Vision was still, then his shoulders tilted downward, so that his body held a very slight curve towards her, and a tiny smile turned his lips upwards. "Were we all so fortunate to have the friendship of one such as yourself, Wanda."   
  
She smiled back, but lightly nudged his shoulder. "Go get changed into something normal." She ordered, and he dipped his head and turned back into his room. "No capes!" She added as an afterthought, considering what he might deem 'normal'.     
  
 "Is this suitable attire?" He reappeared wearing long-sleeved trousers and a button-up shirt. "I do not wish to cause a scene."   
  
"You look great. You look like you again." Wanda stretched up to straightened the collar of his shirt. "There. Don't worry, nobody will dare cause a scene and if they do I'll have them reliving their childhood nightmares until they learn to be more accepting and tolerant in their lives, okay?"

 

* * *

   
  
  
They paid at the gate - having stopped at an ATM to withdrawn money from one of the several accounts that had been placed in their names a Avengers - and Wanda took a deep breath, took Vision's hand, and headed through the turnstile.   
  
To her surprise, despite the crowds, few people gave either of them a second glance. There were brightly dressed clowns, acrobats, mimes and and statue performers everywhere, not to mention those in colorful suits of children's television characters, none of whom Wanda recognized. This was a crowd Vision blended into with with minimal effort.   
  
To their amusement, they saw a teenaged Captain America - outfit complete with a tin shield - chasing after female Iron Man. Wanda made a mental note to mock Stark that the teen girl looked better in the dressup version of his suit than he did in the actual one.    
  
"I will confess Wanda, I don't exactly know what to expect of this evening's event." Vision had been staring, wide-eyed, at the passing attractions and vendors, the nearest of which was brandishing blow-up rubber frogs and bellowing loudly. "Don't leave the show frogless!" The voice blended into the chatter of the crowds and stall attendants pitching their games, and thumping, cheerful beats blared from speakers on each ride, arranged so that each time one grew too faint the next could be heard. Wanda was being infused with the muted excitement of the atmosphere, or perhaps just picking up on the general tone of the crowd's emotions, or maybe a little of each.   
  
"Let's start off easy. These are dodgem cars."  
  
"Do they have any other purpose than to ram ones' vehicle into the next?"   
  
"None whatsoever. Come on, we'll share a car the first time around, and I will show you how it works."   
  
Since dodgems required a fairly basic skill set Vision caught on quickly, and they repeated their first experience with a car each. Wanda was fairly certain Vision was calculating all the best trajectories so he could stalk her car and bump into it at the best possible angle to send her reeling across the rubber floor, but she got in a few good retaliatory strikes herself.    
  
"Okay, let's try something faster-paced. This one doesn't look too bad." Wanda pointed out a set of swinging carts swiftly rotating, the arm holding each cart rising up and down. Vision was agreeable and within a few minutes they slid into the swinging cart and pulled a lap bar down over their knees.   
  
"You do realize I could fly us faster than the sped of this ride?" Vision pointed out, and Wanda bumped her shoulder against his (an easy task since the carts hadn't exactly been built for men Vision's size and she was crammed against him, not unpleasantly.) "Don't be a killjoy. Try it first and if you think it's not exciting enough we'll find something else."   
  
The cars began to whirl around in a circle, quickly reaching a speed where they swung completely sideways to the ground. Wanda shrieked in delight, and to Vision's surprise he felt a flash of excitement as the speed and rocking motion began to affect him. Flying was of course superior as a method of transport and tactic, but there was something very carefree about swiftly hurtling around, rising and falling just enough to offset the otherwise dizzying circles. When they disembarked off the ride, she stumbled slightly, and Wanda laughed as she held onto Vision's arm as they recovered from the ride.     
  
"What did you think?"   
  
He considered, then his whole face lit up with a beaming grin. Wanda felt her skin warm looking at one of his rarest expressions.   
  
"I don't think it went fast enough."   
  
She grinned right back, getting into the spirit. "Let's go find something faster."       
  
  
They found the 'Magic Carpet', a stationary bay of seats on a high-set  spinning arm that constantly reversed directions. Vision professed to greatly enjoy the increased speed and the feeling of weightlessness at the top of the arc before decent.   
  
"This one looks similiar. Let's try it." Vision had clearly been bitten by the rides bug and handed over a ten-dollar note to get two passes for the next ride. It had stopped to release its last set of passengers. Wanda blinked up at it - it wasn't quite as tall as the Magic Carpet ride they'd just gotten off, which reassured her, and it seemed to contain a number of enclosed cage-type carts that rotated diagonally up and down the body of the ride.   
  
As they were strapped in, Wanda eyed the shoulder-harness that closed over the top halves of their body. "Um. This seems a bit much for a ride that just goes around."    
  
Vision looked rather sheepish. "It appears each of these carts appears to be on swivels." He pointed out meekly.   
  
"Swivels? I don't want to swivel... is this going to go upside-down? It's going to go upside-down, isn't it. Oh my god." Wanda groaned and buried her face in her hands. A moment later the motors driving the machine whirred to life and speakers unleashed a mocking recorded laugh followed by the heavy bass of a rock song.  
  
"AAAAAHHHH!" Wanda hadn't found the first two rides scary, but with uncertainty and adrenaline rattling around within she couldn't help but scream when the ride started. They were pitched forward in a sickening loop. "Vision I blame y-aaaaaaaaaah!"   
  
The ride began to haul the cars up the diagonal track then down the far side, the rocking motion setting off the full rotation of the cabins. Perpetually, the cabins stopped rotating one way, swung its occupants upside-down, then rapidly reserved directions.   
  
Groaning, Wanda buried her head in Vision's shoulder, using the arm closer to him to wrap around his neck and cling to him until the ride was finally over.   
  
"Wanda?" Though the ride was stationary now, her eyes were still tightly closed. She groaned softly in response, but creaked one eye open. "Let's never do that again."   
  
Vision steered her away from the ride. She poked him accusingly. "You don't seem as dizzy as I am." She could detect a very faint misstep to his stride, but she was all but staggering in comparison.  
  
"I am not. Perhaps we should sit." The only seats nearby were outside a hamburger grill and completely packed, so instead Vision guided Wanda into the nearby petting zoo and let her crouch beside a pen with a sedate, cud-chewing cow and her curious calf. The calf ambled over, sniffed the fingers Wanda clutched the bars of his pen with, then seized them and began sucking hopefully. Still dizzy and shaking a little from the ride, Wanda had to laugh, retrieving her hand to scratch the calf's forehead. "Okay okay, no need to bribe me with cute baby animals, you're forgiven. Oh, this guy really is cute."   
  
They spend the better part of an hour in the petting zoo. Even after she recovered, Wanda amused herself watching Vision acquaint himself with all sorts of barnyard animals. Laughing to herself at the sight of Vision patting a camel ("Watch out, they spit!" she warned) she thought for a moment she ought to take a photo with her phone, as seemed the customary tradition for people her age. The other Avengers would certainly get a kick out of seeing Vision having a heart-to-heart with a duckling, but she couldn't bring herself to take out the phone.   
  
There was something to be said for living in the moment, for being the one to experience Vision's encounters with the world.   
  
When they finally said goodnight to the animals in the petting zoo as they began packing up for the night, they emerged back into the rides section of the carnival to find it in full swing.      
     
True night had fallen but every ride was lit up in a brilliant display of lights, LEDs flashing and beams of every colour flickering about. Smoke and bubble machines added to the show. Vision was transfixed, walking so slowly they drew annoyed glances from people behind them, but he was oblivious. Feeling his awe wash comfortingly through her mind, Wanda got his attention with a tug on his elbow. "Come on, let's get a really good view."   
  
Vision was very taken with the ferris wheel, despite the slow speed. He leaned from one side of the cart to the other, drinking in all the lights. His wide-eyed look of delight was so sweet Wanda felt her heart melt a little watching him.   
  
After the ferris wheel they were both ready to tackle something a little faster. They tried the gravitron - Wanda snorted in amusement to see how easily Vision, with his superior strength, turned around and even did a push-up against the wall, drawing a round of applause from the other passengers once they disembarked.   
  
They went on a small rollercoaster that they both decided would have been more enjoyable if it hadn't taken corners on a hairpin, throwing them about violently, then Vision spotted 'The Storm' and cast a hopeful look at Wanda. She sighed. "Let's at least watch it before we get on so we know what it does this time." She told him wryly.  
  
The Storm was a tall arm that spun in quite a rapid circle, with six star-shaped arms to seat  rides under that also rotated. Wanda groaned. "No. That spinning-cart thing was enough. This one has twice the spinning. AND it has upside-down." She added as an afterthought.     
  
"But you've already been on the first one." Vision pointed out reasonably. Wanda could sense his eagerness and she couldn't sit back and let him go on his own. "All right." She relented.   
  
Either she was getting more used to the scarier rides or it wasn't as bad as it looked. The motion of The Storm was difficult to grasp, much more of a sideways swinging motion than the sickening up-and-down lurches of the last spinning ride. She wasn't as wobbly when they finally did disembark, but Vision took her arm anyway.   
  
He looked happy, she realized, his eyes bright as they reflected the carnival lights, his lips hovering in a near-smile, the usual  watchfulness of his expression distant now. She wished it could be like this more often - with nothing more worrying than how nerve-wracking the next ride would be.     
  
She didn't regret her decision to become an Avenger, but at times, the missions and public scrutiny and pressure was a lot of juggle.   
   
After several more rides, Wanda professed to feeling hungry, found the least greasy-looking food vendor and purchased a plate of ribs, chips, gravy. She and Vision sat at the apex of a small hill behind the grandstand packed with people watching a car show neither of them were very interested in. They chatted about light-hearted topics while Wanda ate instead. Now they weren't constantly in motion the wind had a deeper chill and Wanda surreptitiously huddled a little closer to Vision and the warmth he always seemed to radiate.     
  
Wanda had just finished eating and wiped her hands clean on a handful of napkins when the PA system announced that a fireworks display would soon be starting. "Vis, I haven't seen fireworks since I was a small girl." She told him with excitement threading through her tone.   
  
"This will be another first for me." Vision replied, then their attention was claimed by a bang and the whistle of fireworks taking off. Instantly they both fell silent, completely spellbound as a starburst of pink and green lights exploded high over their heads.   
  
Wanda enjoyed fireworks immensely, but the one thing she found more interesting was watching Vision watch fireworks. Each time a new variety of fireworks began - fizzy red spirals and golden fountains or wildly whistling rockets - he grew more and more entranced. Wanda realized he was leaning into her shoulder slightly, communicating his excitement like he was a live wire.   
  
Smiling, she returned her attention to the sky, never wanting the moment to end - though she knew, logically, the sun would rise in the same cycle as it had fallen, this night had been timeless for Wanda.   
  
"Thank you for including me in your plans, Wanda." Vision leaned closer again to speak in her ear to be overheard, as if he'd been reading her mind. He may have been, though the thought didn't bother her.   
  
Smiling, Wanda reached for Vision's hand and squeezed his fingers affectionately, giving him the sort of openly honest answer he so often gave her. "Vision, there is nobody else I'd rather be sharing this with."     
  
Acceptance and pride and delight all rose in Vision all at once, along with a less familiar, more subtle emotion Wanda couldn't quite place. Then Vision returned the careful pressure of her fingers, the fireworks reclaimed her attention, and she forgot all about his mystery feeling.

  
Hand in hand, the pair sat and watched the fireworks build towards their explosive grand finale.    
 

**Author's Note:**

> You guys are all aware that these little miracles exist right? LOOK AT THEM. I mean, the Wanda knocked me out. The Vision one is about 98%, only a few tiny tweaks and he'd be perfect. Oh oh and the BUCKY! And the CAP! THE SAM! THE BLACK PANTHER!  
> ...Just go check them out and thank me later, no? If I was rich I would own ALL OF THESE. Pity they're all like, $200 plus... but yeah, I'm still spellbound.  
> https://www.sideshowtoy.com/brands/marvel/?ref=crumb


End file.
